Nsu Held Liable In Sex Abuse Lawsuit

September 15, 2001|By Rafael A. Olmeda Staff Writer

A convicted pedophile should never have been allowed near a 5-year-old girl, and the school that allowed the man to serve as a volunteer is responsible for what he did to her, a Broward jury ruled Friday.

The jury awarded a $200,000 judgment to the family of a mildly autistic girl who said volunteer Daniel Patrick Donohue molested her at the Ralph J. Baudhuin Oral School in Davie in 1997.

The girl's lawyer, Jeffrey Herman, said the compensatory damages were awarded to pay for continuing therapy and for the girl's pain and suffering.

"Punitive damages were not a part of this trial," Herman said. "We may go back and have another trial just to decide punitive damages."

The Baudhuin school is operated by Nova Southeastern University, which admitted it never ran a background check that would have revealed Donohue's two California child molestation convictions.

The girl, now 9, testified last week that Donohue touched her private parts at the school when she was 5 years old. Allegations against Donohue began to surface in April 1997, when police said he fondled two boys at the Baudhuin school and five others at Virginia Shuman Young Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale.

Donohue disappeared in 1997 and eluded capture until February 2000, when he was apprehended in the Philippines. Now 60, he is in jail awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault on a child. None of the cases involves the girl whose family filed the civil lawsuit.

Lawyers for NSU tried to convince the jury that Herman planted the molestation story in the girl's mind after the accusations became public.

Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before coming back with a verdict at noon Friday. They agreed with Herman that the school was liable for allowing Donohue to have access to children.

Donohue persuaded school officials to let him volunteer when he showed them pictures of a boy he said was his autistic grandson. But he has no grandson, police said when the charges were first made public.

Herman has 17 similar cases pending against Nova. "They hired a convicted pedophile," he said.

The girl who won Friday's lawsuit has years of therapy ahead of her, Herman said.

"She's being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder," he said. "She's doing better, and her family is happy to have this behind them."

Lawyers for the school could not be reached for comment Friday.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4207.